By KEITH GRANT
Joseph F. Lane, former Long Beach police commissioner, died last week of heart failure and complications from kidney disease. He was 82.
Lane had been in failing health since moving to Arizona three years ago. At the time of his death last Friday, he was living in a hospice at the Desert Samaritan Hospital in Mesa.
A decorated World War II veteran, Lane served the LBPD for 30 years after joining in 1945, rising through the ranks from patrolman to deputy inspector to the role he held for many years as chief of the detective division. He then served as police commissioner in the early '70s.
Lane was a natural leader for the department, commanding the respect of peers and colleagues as both a detective and as an individual.
"He was one of the finest gentlemen I ever met, and a great police officer," said current Police Commissioner Kenneth Cohen, who spent his first five years on the force under Lane. "He was a great influence, as well as a great teacher."
Lt. Joseph Kearns said that Lane represented "the height of integrity."
"He was a wonderful man," Kearns said. "And a great detective. He was truly respected by all of his peers. Most people who knew him thought the world of him."
Kearns joined the force in 1963, spending the next 12 years under a man he said was a great boss to work for. Others who joined the force under Lane's watch didn't need long to deduce that they could learn a great deal from him.
"He was a good leader," said Det. Sgt. Greg Salter, who joined the force in 1973. "When I came on, he showed all the new guys the ropes, took them around town. He was a real cop's cop."
Lane excelled at the kind of "old-time police work" that Salter said isn't seen much anymore.
"He could smell danger a mile away, or see a bad guy around the corner," Salter said. On top of that, Salter said, Lane "was a good guy, and a class act. Just a good boss to work for."
Upon his retirement, Lane received the Civic Medal for Outstanding Public Service from the City of Long Beach, but he was a respected member of the field well outside of his patrol borders. In 1967, he was one of the top five graduates of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's National Academy for Law Enforcement.
Born in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Lane was still a toddler when his family moved to Long Beach, becoming one of the city's early year-round families. Lane graduated Long Beach High School in 1936 and then went to work for B. Altman & Co. while attending the American School of Banking in Manhattan, where he graduated in 1938. He worked on Wall Street for bond traders for the next three years.
When war broke out, Lane joined the U.S. Army Air Corps and became a decorated veteran. From its home base in Townsville, Australia, Lane's unit participated in the famous island-hopping campaign for the reconquest of the South Pacific under Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
Upon returning home, Lane married his fiancee, Patricia Elizabeth Clark, in 1947. Thirty years later, they retired together to Florida and remained there until Lane's illness prompted them to move closer to their children in Arizona.
Lane remained active in retirement, even returning to his earlier investment career. He served as director of Lane Brothers & Co., Inc., an investment-counseling firm run by his children, and was chairman-emeritus of PropertyRoom.com, a California-based online auction company that specializes in property seized or recovered by police departments around the country.
Family members said Lane maintained his sharp intellect and a keen interest in financial and national affairs right up to his last days. He was also known to read for many hours each week during his lengthy dialysis treatments.
In addition to his wife of 54 years, Lane is survived by their five children: Joseph F. Lane of Redmond, Wash.; Thomas P. Lane of San Clemente, Calif.; Kevin P. Lane of Prescott, Ariz.; Robert P. Lane of Boca Raton, Fla., and Patricia Lane Briones of Chandler, Ariz.; sisters Eileen Lane of Long Beach and Marie Lane Caufield of North Bergen, N.J.; daughters-in-law Susan Lane, Martha Simpson Lane and Malissa Lane; son-in-law Luis J. Briones; grandchildren Katherine Elizabeth Lane, Sandra Patricia Lane, Ryan Andrew Lane, Ligita Irene Lane, Megan Kema Lane, Nicole Marie Briones, and Joseph Luis Briones; sisters-in-law Bernadette McCann and Veronica Inch; brother-in-law Joseph McCann, and 27 nephews and nieces.
Reposing was scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m., at Macken's Mortuary in Rockville Centre. Funeral services are to be conducted at St. Ignatius R.C. Church at 9:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 9, with interment to follow in the family plot at Holy Rood Cemetery in Garden City.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Hospice of the Valley, 1510 E. Flower St., Phoenix, Ariz. 85014.
